Internet connectivity has enabled new means with which entities can communicate with one another. As used herein, an entity includes any individual or business, where agents or representatives of the business can communicate on its behalf. Such communication began with email, chat, and message boards. Today, social networking sites account for a large share of online communications. These communications include Facebook® messages and “wallposts” and Twitter® “Tweets™” as some examples.
In most instances, entities can register for and access communication services of different service providers while providing only a basic set of registration information. The basic set of registration information may include only a username or handle and an email address. This allows entities to register quickly, register anonymously, and avoid disclosing confidential information (e.g., social security number, credit card number, etc.).
However, such unverified usage can lead to spoofing, online identity hijacking, and credibility concerns. Specifically, an entity can obtain any available username or handle irrespective of whether that username or handle accurately identifies the entity or misleads others into believing that the entity is actually some other entity. The unverified nature with which many service providers operate makes it difficult or impossible to ascertain whether an online entity is who it claims to be. For example, John Smith can register for and create a Facebook profile “\GeorgeWashington” and the Twitter handle “@MicrosoftCorp” and begin disseminating messages using that profile and that handle. Due to the unverified status of the accounts, those receiving the messages sent from the “@MicrosoftCorp” handle have no way of knowing that the messages are not actually coming from the Microsoft Corporation but the entity, John Smith, that has registered for and used that handle. Unverified usage and the problems that result thereof are especially problematic (1) for broadcast type online communications such as Facebook public wallposts and Twitter tweets, whereby dissemination of information to large audiences can be easily accomplished, and (2) for celebrities, politicians, athletes, and others in the public eye who are often the targets of spoofing and online identity hijacking and whose communications are followed by others.
Some attempts have been made to verify entities and entity accounts. However, these attempts have mostly involved manual processes. Manual processes are costly and slow. For a service provider with several thousands or millions of unverified registered entities, a manual entity verification process is not viable. Other attempts at entity verification have required entities to disclose confidential information. Some entities shy away from such verification processes because of the confidential nature of the information that is being requested and because of fear that the confidential information may be hacked and stolen from the service provider.
As service providers attract more users, as the services provided to the unverified entities reach and impact larger audiences, and as the services provided to the unverified entities are turned to by more entities as an increasingly important source from which to obtain information or news about an entity, an ever increasing need results to automatedly and accurately verify the identities of the entities so that content consumers can be confident that a disseminating entity is who it claims to be and the disseminated information or news can be relied upon as coming from the appropriate source. Accordingly, there is a need to provide improved automated systems, methods, and techniques for performing entity verification. There is need to perform such entity verification in a manner that keeps up with service providers receiving exponential growth. There is further a need to perform such verification based on the basic registration information that can be obtained from the service providers, without the need for the entities to disclose additional confidential information.